People planning hikes to Pillsbury Mountain or into the West Canada Lakes Wilderness through Perkins Clearing should be aware of a bridge closing on a back road to the trailheads.

A small bridge over the Miami River in the Perkins Clearing Conservation Easement Area north of Speculator will be closed for replacement from today through July 20, according to a Department of Environmental Conservation notice.

The bridge is on a dirt road owned by Lyme Timber, but open to the public, that leads to the hike for the Pillsbury Mountain fire tower, and also to access points for hikes to Spruce Lake and Cedar Lake, two of the remotest and wildest lakes in the Adirondacks. Those lakes will still be accessible by hiking the Northville-Lake Placid trail.

The conservation easement for Perkins Clearing was part of the state's deal to acquire easements from International Paper in 2005. It's one of the places where moose are most often sighted, though the best I did during a trip last week was to spy a deer in the road.